Crossing Paths
by jalapeno bagels
Summary: -oneshot- Takes place during 4th book. Sirius Black, escaped criminal, is staying on a park bench in London for the night, when a random Japanese girl passing through the area happens upon him and takes him in for the evening.


**CROSSING PATHS**

-oneshot-

####

It was an uncharacteristically pleasant day in London – a breeze blew through the streets, and the sky was a clear blue. The brick stone buildings beamed in the sunlight, and casted cool blue shadows onto the sidewalk. It was a wonderful autumn day, and the air was crisp and light.

A taxi cab pulled up to the curb, and a rather young Asian woman stepped out of a car with a sunny yellow satchel and a suitcase. Her long black hair blew in in the wind, and the sun uncovered the dancing blue sheen of each strand. She wore a smile on her face, looking about the street before thanking and paying the driver, and then proceeding to walk down the street.

To the bystanders on the street, she looked on the very cusp of becoming a woman – perhaps nineteen or twenty years of age – but she was far, far older than anyone would possibly guess. Although she looked that of a petite Asian girl, her almond-shaped eyes shone an unexpected brilliant blue. She smiled as she looked around the buildings, streets and people, as if welcoming a familiar friend.

Ten minutes later, she stopped in front of a small inn, squished in between a little bookstore and a large brick building of apartments. There, she spoke to an middle-aged grouchy woman sitting at a desk and paid for a room for that night.

Setting her things down in her room, she left the inn with just the satchel that hung off her shoulder. It was time to go around and get a feel for the city she had just arrived in.

"Only a century," she mused to herself, "And it's changed so much."

####

A man sat alone on a bench in a little park. It was not quite dark enough for the lamp posts to start lighting up, but the sky was a slight purple color as the sun began to descent. The trees around him shone oranges, reds, yellows and purples as their leaves rustled down in the wind.

The family picnicking to his right had just started to leave, and couples began to head for the path that lead to the street. Only he stayed, wearing a raggedly, once black cloak that had faded to a dark gray, with the hood of his cloak pulled over his face. Some of the people strolling out gave him suspicious glances.

He slouched on the park bench, sighing as he pulled out a newspaper clipping. The article had been mostly cut off, and only a black and white photo of a teenage boy with glasses remained, along with a line of text – 'and the youngest Triwizard contestant is the famous' – before it stopped. Curiously enough, the boy seemed to move on the paper and blink owlishly. The man stared at the photo, before putting it back into his pocket and running his hand through his hair. The hood of the cloak fell down, but he didn't care – everyone had already left the park.

"James," he said quietly to the air, "What in the world am I doing here?" No one responded, save for trees rustling in the wind.

"Hiding in Muggle parks, scavenging trash cans for food," he said bitterly, "And the entire Wizarding population is after me." The years and years of being in prison showed – instead of the healthy, handsome man he had once been, his face was gaunt, his ribs showed, and many of his happy memories had been chased away by the Dementors.

He stood up, and closed his eyes, flinging out his arms up like a madman.

"Why? Why did you go, James? Lily? Why didn't you take me with you? It would've been better than everyone thinking I'm a traitor." His words died on the wind, and the man put his hands down and winced as he felt the ache of hunger in his stomach.

"It was suppose to be different," he whispered, his voice hoarse, "We were suppose to all be happy. But you're gone. And I'm alone, hungry, and raving like a lunatic." He slumped back into the chair, defeated.

"Are you alright?" A clear, feminine said. The man's eyes flew open to see a pretty Muggle girl, standing on the trail, a couple meters from him. She was Asian, with long hair flowing nearly down to her waist. She peered at him with concern.

"Er, I'm fine," he said slowly, rather thrown off. Since when did teenage girls talk to men that looked homeless? The most he got from people were uncertain, wary glances.

"You don't look fine," she said, looking at him, "And you didn't sound fine a minute ago, either."

_Damn!_ She had heard him! Had he said anything about magic?

"How long were you listening?" Sirius said, alarmed. He reached into his pocket for the wand he had stolen out of a wizard's robe a month ago. It didn't usually work well, and the bottom end was rather splintered, but sometimes was better than never. He hesitated to cast a Memory Charm, though. If the wand malfunctioned, it could really hurt her.

"Long enough," she said, walking towards him. He watched with slight shock as she plopped onto the bench, put her bag down, and held her hand out with a smile.

"I'm Kagome Higurashi, nice to meet you," she said, her clear blue eyes looking directly into his.

Slowly, in a daze, the man shook her hand. She was very pretty. If he had been twenty years younger, he would've been dropping one of his infamous pick-up lines.

"I'm Sirius Black." As soon as those words left his mouth, he regretted it. _Shit! The Muggles know I'm an escaped convict! It's been all over their news too!_

But Kagome didn't react to his name at all. He tensed as she reached into her bag for something, but she only pulled out a cardboard box, along with bottles of water.

"Do you like pastries? I bought a bunch today for breakfast tomorrow, but you can have a couple if you like." She handed him some sort of strawberry confection on a napkin, along with a bottle of water.

He nodded numbly, and then scarfed three entire pastries down without really tasting them. Soon, the entire bottle of water was empty too.

"Oh, you really are hungry!" Kagome said, watching him eat, "Well, I haven't ate dinner, so let's go get some real food. I think I saw a little pub near here."

Sirius looked blankly at her as she put the rest of the food away and started to walk down the trail.

"Well? Aren't you coming?" She looked at him expectantly.

Sirius got up and followed after her, not quite knowing what to make of this Muggle girl. Girls like her weren't suppose to be wandering around in the evening with men like him. Yet, here she was, taking him, a complete stranger, out to dinner. But Merlin, he was hungry.

Throughout dinner, Kagome continuously talked, first about the wonderful history of London, the interesting food (from this, he deduced that she was a traveler), and then, the differences in culture of England and Japan. She pressed him for details of London and local culture, and he answered briefly in between mouthfuls of pudding. He thought to himself that he was lucky she was unaccustomed to England, since some of his answers were completely made up on the spot.

When he started to become drowsy from being both warm and well-fed, she asked him about himself, and although he had been tired and unfocused enough to answer, he was at least careful not to mention magic.

Throughout the dinner, he felt the way she was speaking was rather odd, but couldn't put a finger on what it was exactly. Later, he would realize that she talked to him like a friend, and not at all a stranger. Even later, when he tried to recall the exact details of her, Sirius would realize that she had told him next to nothing about herself, besides her name.

####

Kagome watched as Sirius promptly fell asleep on the couch. She found a spare blanket in the closet and carefully covered him, wrapping it around his shoulders.

At first sight, she had been able to see the sorrow that weighed down his heart, along with a rather unnatural depression. Something had affected him greatly, something full of dark magic. She could tell he wasn't a bad person – simply very unlucky.

During dinner, Sirius hadn't said much, but as the night drew on, he became more and more drowsy and she had been able to get out of him that most of his friends and family were dead, and that most people he knew blamed him for something he didn't do. It was so sad, especially when he had talked about his godson. His happiness and pride in this boy named 'Harry' had been painful to watch – it was so very obvious that it was all he had.

The haze of magic around Sirius were quite obvious to Kagome's eyes, and she could pick out what looked like tattered pieces of dark residue wrapping around him.

She stood, stretching her arms out. The last time she had done this was probably forty years ago, so she was a little rusty. Carefully, she reached her fingertips out, a hair's breathe above Sirius's skin, and poured her purifying power out.

The room glowed bright, as the darkness fought back, fighting to continue to leach off of Sirius's soul. He groaned in his sleep, as Kagome slowly eradicated away the darkness. Her entire body glowed with a pink light, and somehow a wind started to whip around her, blowing her hair back into the air as she struggled to purify every residual piece. She started to become out of breath, but the final piece of darkness eventually fizzled away with a bright light, and died.

As she caught her breath, she examined his aura. It was a subdued, warm glow. With time, he would improve and feel better.

With a satisfied smile on her face, Kagome climbed into bed and fell asleep.

Sirius woke up with the sunlight in his face, with a rather foreign feeling. He was content – warm, not hungry, and relaxed. Sirius hadn't felt this comfortable in more than a decade.

Blearily, he shook off the covers, and sat up on the sofa, noting his surroundings. It looked like he was in a hotel room. There was no one else, except for him. Memories of the night before slowly trickled in. The girl who had taken him out to dinner. She had offered him a place to sleep, and he had fallen asleep on the couch.

At first, he had thought that she wanted to shag him – it seemed to be the only explanation for her behavior. But that thought had soon dissolved when he saw just how kind she was.

Sirius walked around the room. The bed was neatly made, and he noticed that on the desk in the corner, there was a folded sheet of paper on top of some folded clothes and a green fabric bag. He picked up the note, unfolding it to see scrolling handwriting.

_Hi Sirius,_

_Good morning! It was great to meet you! I'm sorry, but I have to leave London. I was going to tell you this morning, but you looked so comfortable sleeping that I didn't want to wake you up._

_You looked very depressed when I first saw you, but I can see that you're a good person at heart. Focus on the good in your life, and strive to make happy memories. I hope you're reunited with your godson soon._

_Anyway, I took the liberty of getting you a couple things. There's some new clothes – I think they're about the right size. If not, there's a receipt so you can exchange them. The rest of the pastries are also there, so have some breakfast! This room is also rented out for the next week for you. I think it's suppose to start storming tonight. I also got you a new wand – I don't know where you got the old one you were carrying on you, but it didn't match you at all._

_Perhaps our paths will cross again in the future. Until then, goodbye._

_Kagome Higurashi_

Sirius's head shot up at the mention of the wand.

_She wasn't a Muggle?_

He quickly dug through the green bag, and there it was, inside a long narrow box. A label on the box read 'Twelve inches, Willow, Dragon Heartstring,' and bore the crest of Ollivander's. A quick swish yielded red and gold sparks.

_How did she..?_

Sirius dug through the rest of the bag. In addition to the items she had mentioned in the note, she had included a loaf of sliced bread, cheese, apples, a small pouch of Muggle money and some toiletries – a comb, some soap, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, etc.

Sirius pushed that all aside, and stared at the note. How had she known that he was a wizard? Was she a witch? Why had she not mentioned it before? And how had she known he had a wand that wasn't compatible with him?

####

_Four months later_

On a winding lane leading into the countryside around Hogsmeade, a large shaggy black dog carried newspapers in it's mouth, wagging it's tail as Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived. Harry carried a bag of food for Sirius.

"Hello, Sirius," Harry said. The black dog turned and began to trot away, leading them through the rocky countryside. They climbed a steep, winding path, following the eager black dog that bounded up the trail as Harry, Ron, and Hermione tried their best to keep up.

At last, they were lead into a small cave, dimly lit with sunlight from the narrow entrance. The black dog soon turned into Harry's godfather. He wore a long black cloak over Muggle clothes – jeans and a long sleeved shirt. His hair was long, but not as untidy as it once was.

"Sirius, you look a lot better!" Hermione said, surprised. He was no longer as thin as he once was, and the gauntness in his face was nearly gone. Harry and Ron both nodded.

Sirius grinned, and then his expression changed and became thoughtful and wandering. He took out his wand, and conjured several chairs and a table, on which he set Harry's bundle of food.

"You got a wand!" Harry said, shocked.

"Yes, well, something odd happened. It's a story I'd like to tell you," Sirius said, gesturing for the three teenagers to sit.

"Back in September, I was sitting on a park bench in a Muggle park in the evening. A Japanese girl found me sitting there, depressed and talking to myself..."

Sirius went on to describe the mysterious girl who had fed him and given him a place to sleep that night, and then vanished the next morning. The three teenagers all listened with wide eyes to the strange story, of a girl who appeared to be a muggle, somehow knew Sirius was a wizard, and picked out a perfect wand for him.

"That's so strange," Ron breathed, "A random girl, just like that?"

"Yes, and since then, I've felt a lot- a lot _happier, _somehow. I didn't realize how depressed I was before, but after that I didn't feel so -" and here, Sirius glanced at them, seemingly having an inner debate on something.

"What? You didn't feel so what?" Harry asked.

"Being free isn't nearly as bad as being in Azkaban," Sirius said slowly, "But somehow the Dementors had already taken something from me. And on many nights, I just wanted to die. She caught me on one of those nights."

All three teenagers felt shame. None of them had known how deep Sirius's depression was. Sometimes, it was easy to forget how much Sirius had gone through.

Harry also looked alarmed and Sirius hastily said, "I'm fine now. Somehow, after that night of sleep, I felt different, and haven't thought that way for months."

"She takes you out to dinner, gives you a place to stay for the night, and then rents the room out for an entire week, just for you. Then, she leaves you a new wand. She must be extraordinarly kind." Hermione said, thoughtful.

"How did she know, though? Had she been stalking you?" Harry mumbled.

"Even Ollivander can't tell what the exact wand for someone without trying half of them," Ron said.

"She wasn't a Death Eater, I can tell you that," Sirius said, "She couldn't have been. She was a traveler and going somewhere else, and from what I could tell, she was just staying for one night in London before leaving."

The four of them pondered in silence.

"Well, whoever this Kagome is, she really helped me by giving me a wand. I can put on Glamour Charms now to disguise myself, and sometimes I work at Muggle restaurants for money and food," Sirius said, shrugging.

"Wait, her name is Kagome? What is her last name?" Hermione said very quickly.

Sirius frowned, "I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but I have the note she left me, and that has her name on it."

He pulled out a rather creased sheet of paper. Hermione's eyes darted right down to the last line, _Kagome Higurashi._

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh," Hermione gasped, examining the note.

"What Hermione? Who is she?" Harry asked, taking the note and reading it.

"I've read about her. In magical history books. She shouldn't be alive – she's a myth that no one's ever been quite able to explain."

"A myth?" Sirius asked incredulously, "I met her!"

"Do you remember the color of her eyes?" Hermione asked, breathlessly. Harry and Ron both raised an eyebrow at this strange question.

"I don't think I could quite ever forget. They were blue, just like the clear sky," Sirius replied.

"That's her then. Kagome Higurashi. Her tale is a saga that's extremely popular in Japan. She's also known as the Shikon Miko and is an integral part of Japanese history. Around five centuries ago, there was an evil demon who tried to take over Japan."

"Wait – five centuries ago?" Ron blurted out. Sirius and Harry gaped.

"Yes, I know. She and her friends hunted for the demon for four years, and then in the final battle, she purified him. She's called the Shikon Miko since the mythical Shikon Jewel came out of her body, which could grant any wish in the world. She reabsorbed it into her soul in the final battle."

"Into her soul?" Sirius said weakly.

"Yes," Hermione said, wide-eyed, "It's said that she has an extremely large soul, along with incredible power, and as a side effect of absorbing the Jewel, she's immortal. She's been sighted throughout centuries, usually helping others, but her appearances are always disputed. However, from what you just told us, it looks like the legend is true."

"Five centuries. She looked like she was only twenty," Sirius said, in shock.

"The legends say she doesn't age," Hermione said quietly.

"That's bloody incredible," Ron said in awe.

"It also explains why you've felt so much better since then," Hermione said in realization, "She's one of the most powerful healers in history."

"That's crazy," Harry said.

"That's not even the craziest thing about the legend. It's also said she's a time traveler – the farthest time traveler in history."

"What?" Sirius, Harry and Ron said.

"I did the math when I read the book, and if I'm right, she was born around nearly the same time around the three of us, or even later. Then, somehow, she was pulled five hundred years back into the past, and then traveled between the times. After the final battle, she stayed in the past, and has lived through the times since then."

All four sat in silence after that, astonished at their discovery.

_####_

_June_

It was the end of June, and the Triwizard Tournament was over. Cedric was dead, Voldemort had returned. Harry was feeling rather grim and shaky. His childhood was ending and the Wizarding War would break out soon.

At the moment, the black-haired boy sat on his bed, staring at a piece of paper. He was in the midst of packing to go back to Privet Drive for the summer, when he had spotted this piece of paper stuck between two notebooks.

Hermione had found a replication of a painting of the Shikon Miko in one of the library books, and had duplicated it with a spell. He had sent the paper to Sirius, who had owled back, _That's her. That's exactly her._

Harry ran his finger over the image of a teenage girl, with long black hair, surrounded by a monk, a demon-slayer, a half dog demon, and a young fox demon. They were all so young, and seemed to be from another world, where it was up to them to save their country.

He rummaged through his trunk again, and a minute later, found the copy of the saga of the Shikon Miko that Hermione had given to him. Kagome had fought against all odds to save her world. She and her friends had worked long and hard in order to be able to defeat the demon.

Soon, it would be his turn.

He could _feel_ it. Voldemort would come after him – there was no hiding. Kagome faced evil with courage and he would too. Kagome defeated the demon with her friends by her side and he would too.

People would die, cities would crumble, and soon his entire world would change, but he had to stay strong, like she did five centuries ago.

There _would be_ a happy ever after for him, just as there was for her.

_Fin._

_####_

Disclaimer : I own nothing. Nothing at all.

Just an unexpected encounter. My idea of what would happen if Kagome met Sirius in the fourth book. Sirius travels around hiding in caves and eating rats to stay alive in The Goblet of Fire, and I've just always thought he deserved better than that. I wrote this all in one day, out of an idea I had that I wrote down on scraps of paper. As of the moment, I don't plan to go any further with this. **Please let me know if you like reading oneshots from me!**

I left out Buckbeak, mainly because this is a oneshot, and I didn't want to go into excruciating detail to make everything fit in the book.

I also apologize if you expected romance between Sirius and Kagome – I do love the pairing, but I don't quite know how to write romance yet, so I'm going to tackle it later.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and **please leave a review!**


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